An Iowa State Patrol officer took to Twitter to tell truckers to park it when bad weather strikes. His strongly-worded Tweet came after a 40-vehicle pileup on Interstate 80 earlier this week that included a tanker rolling atop two trooper cars.
Trooper Jon Stickney tweeted:
“Truckers, all you are is an 80.000 pound sled on ice. No driver in this world can stop an 80,000 pound sled on the Highway and all we see is 80,000 pounds sleds causing these massive wrecks.”
Stickney’s tweet came after a weather-related pileup closed eastbound I-80 for several hours Thursday, Feb. 4. The collisions occurred east of DesMoines near Newton in blizzard-like conditions. One person was injured in the pileup, which is still under investigation.
“These chain reaction collisions it’s from vehicles and in this case, a lot of them were the commercial motor vehicles, semis traveling too fast and they just ultimately just can’t slow down in time,” Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Alex Dinkla told a local TV station.
The state patrol reportedly responded to more than 235 crashes between Thursday morning at 3 a.m. and Friday night at 6 p.m.
Truckers, all you are is an 80.000 pound sled on ice. No driver in this world can stop an 80,000 pound sled on the Highway and all we see is 80,000 pounds sleds causing these massive wrecks. pic.twitter.com/kw9BrZZUqY
— Trooper Jon Stickney (@TrooperStickney) February 4, 2021